Music, Me and You

Thursday, 13 October 2011

It's undeniable that Harris Jayaraj is one of the most sought after music directors of today.... The man in all his simplicity knows how to captivate his audience by keeping the formula simple, yet retaining the magic...

More than 2 months back, when I received a call to be part of the show, I was elated! A few days later when I was told I was going to be singing 'Vaseegara', my happiness knew know bounds....
I've been singing this master-piece ever since school days.... My schoolmates I'm sure still remember how it all started with 'Zara zara'.... To be singing the same song with the man who created it on his show - Dream come true indeed!!

The energy all along... How each one cheers another, gives constructive feedback.... It's been a beautiful journey....

The last 3 rehearsals before the Chennai show were night long.... Although we had mosquitoes brazing us in open-air - our spirits were in an undaunted high! Devan got us in splits of laughter with his unbelievable mimickry! Haha. KJ Singh from the Sound mixing arena got us studio-like levels in our monitors....
The entire stage production team was unbelievably efficient - Super charged and sweet.....

Alas - on the D day - Everything went on smooth as butter.... No hiccups. Rarely do you witness stage production being so neat and coordinated!!

I had an absolute moment there crooning my ever favorite 'Vaseegara'....

*Bows* to Augustine Paul sir, my guru for training me so beautifully in Western classical - I sang all of the western classical bits that are so special in Harris's songs - Anbae en Anbae, Nenjukkul peiidhidum, Anjalae...

Thank you Harris sir.... Thank you 'On the Edge' team...

Looking forward to more excessively awesome shows to come all of this year and the next!!

Monday, 29 August 2011

Performing with MMA Choir for the last 4 years has been an absolutely wonderful journey for me....

The pleasure of singing chorale music with 80+ dedicated fellow musicians every Monday under the irreplaceable guidance of conductor Mr. Augustine Paul equals absolute musical enrichment, joy and fulfillment...

Performing "Thank you for the Music" at Musical Montage 2010

The choir does concerts all over the world. We're invited to even perform in Olympics 2012!

Our most recent trip concert "Down Memory Lane" was at Kodaikanal on the invite of the Rotary Club Kodaikanal... We performed a whole bunch of pieces from Musicals such as Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, Lion King... We did a Beatles medley and a lot of other familiar pieces and the audience enjoyed it in totality!

I couldn't possibly thank MMA and Augustine uncle for giving me a more perfect role to play in the choir. We signed of with the beautiful "Thank you for the music - Abba" - a song I love to bits. This was the first song I performed as a soloist in the MMA choir and I continue to even now.

Performing "Thankyou for the Music" at Museum Theatre, Chennai

We also performed several classical pieces at the humble St. Peters Church, Kodaikanal.

A few soloists and pianists also rendered handpicked pieces at the Kodai International School. The acoustics of the venue matches every classical performer's ideal dream! No mics.... Our voices and the divine sounds of the piano resonated so beautifully as we performed to such a tasteful audience!

Amongst the audience were 3 most adorable dogs with it's master that listened without a single bark all through the hour-and-a-half long concert! Unbelievably pretty!

Anupa Paul and I sang one of my most favorite duets written ever - Handel's"O Lovely Peace" from Judas Maccabeaus...
We had fantastic pianists from the choir performing works of Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Schubert.... Felt like I was in Rome! Stunned at each one's prowess and love for this beautiful art.....

Back to Chennai after this lovely musical experience at Kodai.... We encountered a bus breakdown midway through. God just decided to be merciful to me. The van I was in made it to the station on time...

Here I am - back to the recordings, concerts, nlp, social media, learning measurement, sales, laughs and smiles mania in Chennai!

Life's good. Ride high and Smile at it :)

PS: Will put up pics of the performances soon after I get hold of them :)

Friday, 19 August 2011

Way back when I was in the 5th grade - I used to dream of singing for Rahman someday... In 2006, when I start doing lil recordings, I wrote about this here

I moved into Chennai after my schooling in Bangalore... Drew inspiration from my neighbor Arjun to learn to play the guitar. And I found myself being shown the way to the great Sadanandam Sir, Ilayaraja's lead guitarist right from his very first film..... Blessed as I was, I began to take guitar lessons from him. He used to hear my hum off and on... And suggested I give playback singing a shot. He called me for my very first recording for a documentary film where I sang the bhajan "Raghupathy raaghav raja ram"... I can't even begin to describe how ecstatic I felt when I sang into the mic for the first time..... Every part of me wanted this for the rest of my life.....

And from then, there's been no looking back...

My cousin Vidya and I shared this passion together as we made our demo cds and distributed it to everyone we could find!

I started out with jingles, harmonies....

The first music director I ever sang for was D. Imman sir... I still remember every word of that first recording for him. I'm oh so grateful for him for that personal milestone of mine that he has contributed to. My first break in a film was by Vijay Antony in the film Naan Avan Illai in 2007. First time on a movie audio cd ever. I can bring back precisely how it felt back then to hear and watch my song on screen for the first time......

Life has only been beautiful ever since. I've met people so many beautiful musicians and legends over these years....

The first non-film album that I sang for was called Kadhal Mozhi. It was released world-over. The music director V. S. Udhaya is one of the most beautiful human beings I've ever met. He had faith in me even when I was such an amateur 5 years ago and gave me an opportunity that I can't thank him enough for.... Here's testimony to this special first time experience - First Album Song Recording Video:

From there.... All the way to Maasi Massi for Harris Jayaraj and Jessie's Land for A R Rahman.... It has been nothing short of bliss....

I take this opportunity to thank all the music directors I've worked with, musicians, fellow-singers and seniors, managers, incharges for everything they've done in making my life more deep, fulfilling and happy :)

I don't know what the future has in store for me.... But I will sing. With all my heart. Till my last breath.

I've always believed - if you reeeally really want something with all your heart, Nature will make way for it. Go for your passion. God will make way.

I've been an avid blogger for a few years now. I've had a personal blog where my words echoed to a large extent what I was going through at each phase of my life... For some reason I haven't been able to write about my life over the last year or so....

I now have this insatiable urge to write as 'Megha' to the world....

I'm going to dedicate this space to music - my breath of life, my experiences, thoughts and happenings.